"We Both Gain from a Little Influence, But How Comes Nobody Credits us Brits?

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 In my lifetime I don't remember a time where the UKs scene and its influence has been greater. Stormzy's out here doing press runs with Hot 97 and Charlamange. Mo Gilligan had his Netflix special in the US top 10 for stand-up comedy. And Everyone and their uncle was learning about street life in the UK from Top Boy. Britain's influence in music, and entertainment more generally, has been, and is, growing to astronomical levels.

With that however, there becomes a lot of risks and issues that are set to arise which I believe, in the past, and in the future have the potential to hamper British artists and the UK from having its desired impact and influence globally. Thus, with that I mind, I’ve identified a few issues which need be addressed within the UK scene in order to avoid falling into some of the same traps which have derailed the British artists in the past from having an even greater global influence.

Firstly, PAY PRODUCERS AND ENGINEERS. I have seen too many times where producers are having to take to twitter for failing to get their fair credit and their fair pay for the work, they put in to make a song. This trend needs to stop. With the growth of the scene and the diversification of the music being created, producers play too important of a role to be isolated and ostracized in this manner. When Jae5, of all people, is having to list his slew of platinum and gold singles to justify never working for anything under 15k, it shows that there is a clear problem and a severe disrespect and disregard for producers within the scene, which cannot be allowed to continue.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/41657018/meet-jae5-the-producer-behind-j-hus-common-sense-album

Which, in turn leads me to my second point, pay producers, so we can continue to see the range of music being produced expand. One of the reasons I believe the UK scene has grown so exponentially, is the fact that music of black origin is no longer singularly pigeonholed into the grime category where it doesn't fit. We can legitimately say we have a grime scene, we have a rap scene, an afro scene, an R&B scene and even a pop scene. And what's better is that we as consumers have trained ourselves to better appreciate this. Stormzy wasn't shunned for making "Blinded by Your Grace", he was celebrated. The fact that Dave was able to mix a song like "Streatham" and a song like "Lesley" onto the same album is applauded, which I think is a great thing. As such, there needs to be a concerted effort on the part of UK creatives to continue to branch out and expand the field. And to this point, we as fans need to stop this trend of demanding everyone drop a drill track. However good a song "Paper Cuts" is, I don't need to hear Dave on a drill song when there are more than enough artists who successfully occupy that lane.

Next, and arguably more importantly, the UK needs to work against the influence and reliance upon the US. The growth of the past 5 years has been so refreshing because it hasn't been forced upon us. it's been an organic growth and development of the UKs doing. We have seen less, and less artist feel forced to make radio hits and try and sell records in the U.S. to find success. I've seen less artists concern themselves with doing shows in small venues on a Tuesday in New York or Chicago, because they've been too busy selling out the O2, Alexandra Palace and Manchester Arena. And long may it continue. Additionally, we need ensure the U.S. are not able to copy the sound which UK artists have spent so much time perfecting. No matter how much I love the song, Pop Smoke should not be able to just make the same drill track I've been hearing a slew of UK rappers make for the past 3 years, and have one of the biggest songs of 2019.

Ultimately, there's a lot of reasons to be very excited if you're a fan of the UK scene. As this younger crop of artists continue to develop and establish themselves, I'm sure we'll only see the British scene go from strength to strength. And with the legends like Wretch, Kano and Ghetts still going strong, we are in a real healthy place.

Someone just has to take Wiley's phone away and we'll be good.
https://mundialmag.com/blogs/articles/grime-fc-casisdead-kano-wiley-big-narstie


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